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‘Tyrants are alive and well during these Covid days. If you tremble with righteous anger when tyrants raise a clenched fist to crush the innocent and helpless, then you and I can become friends, even if you’re a Liberal.
Yes, I’m getting mellow at my advanced age. But then, mellow is only one stage from being rotten, so we can at least be friendly.
Righteous anger is producing stirrings of courage, convictions, and commitment around the globe.
A few days ago, thousands of physicians told national governments they are resisting their totalitarianism and will not take it anymore. They declared government officials are not in charge of health care, and in attempting to control it, they are tyrants and totalitarians.
Such officials would also be ordinary thugs.
It was September 29 of this year that more than 6700 physicians threw down the gauntlet and demanded an end to the medical tyranny that national and international health officials had forced upon them. The concerned physicians are weary of being bullied, browbeaten, and bludgeoned by political physicians and restricted on how they treat COVID-19 patients before they are hospitalized in a life and death position. Often the mandatory unsuccessful treatment fails, ending with death.
I think death would indicate the treatment was unsuccessful.
The brave physicians declared, “this is not medicine. This is not care. These policies may actually constitute crimes against humanity.” It must be remembered that these physicians work on the frontline in the COVID battle, not sitting in ivory towers pontificating their wisdom to the unwashed masses in the streets.
Others have made similar comments about “crimes against humanity.” That is not hyperbolic but real. Health “experts” at the CDC, NIH, FDA, and WHO have been accused of dragging their feet in restricting and refusing (even ridiculing) the use of common, effective drugs to cure patients in early stages of COVID. It is alleged they are doing that to guarantee the financial success of quick and questionable but expensive vaccines. If so, that is “crimes against humanity.”
I hesitate to use the Nazi comparison at any time, but it is appropriate here. Twelve Nazi officers were sentenced to hang at Nuremberg for the deaths of innocent people, and the guilt of some officers is in doubt. IF the allegations against federal and international health officials are true, it is far worse than those Nazis, and there will be many physicians in court who sold out for 30 pieces of silver—or the hope of a Nobel Prize.
Even if all the charges against public health officials are untrue, the accusation of tyranny is clearly valid. Without seeking information from all sources, politicians took the word of people with doctorates but who had never treated a patient. Furthermore, some of the health officials had conflicts of interest—financial, political, and economical. Or egotistical.
Furthermore, no honest person would disagree that much political reaction was prompted by hatred of Donald Trump. Such politicians made decisions not based on science while they talked about following the science!
The lockdowns are unprecedented, and it’s unbelievable that so many allegedly independent-thinking Americans would obey such dictatorial mandates. How did these political tyrants— mayors, governors (and president), think they had the authority to force a businessperson to close their business after putting their life savings and sweat into it? Moreover, it is shocking that so many obeyed and thus were forced out of business.
However, this has been going on for decades since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, when the feds took freedom from everyone with the pretense of helping minorities have more freedom. If the state or federal government can tell you that you must serve certain people, then they can tell you what hours you can open, how much you must pay, what pension plans you must provide, rules about overtime, workplace regulations, and on and on and on. Political totalitarians should have been stopped at the first intrusion into a business that was not their own. Businesspeople don’t work for themselves anymore but for the government.
Lockdowns forced churches to close while strip clubs and similar places remained open! I suppose there may be a feeble argument for a businessperson to make about caving to officials but not for a church. The church must obey Scripture, and it has first amendment protection. Yet, church leaders permitted elected officials to decide whether the church could be open, how many people could attend, how they were seated, and the duration of services.
The early Disciples would reply, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”
Many, maybe most, of the submissive pastors were simply trying to be obedient and wanted to help, not hinder, the community. Some pastors compounded their compromise by paying a fine. For others, it was cowardice and capitulation to secular authority. That will be revealed in eternity and not before a human tribunal.
We were told that masks are required, and one could not enter a business without a mask, but that mandate is not science-based. Masks are not capable of or made for preventing the spread of any virus. Proof of that fact is printed on the side of every mask box.
Is this a dry run for the time when one cannot buy or sell without a mark? Not much difference between a mark and a mask. Both mean subservience. But then, a businessperson can set any qualifications he chooses within very narrow guidelines since 1964. I would support a business owner’s right to require a Goodyear tire around each customer’s neck.
The governor of Texas has forbidden any business to forbid masks in the state, but a businessperson should have the right to set his own requirements for those he serves.
A medical doctor or nurse is different from a businessperson. First, he probably had a huge student loan guaranteed by the federal government. However, he took an oath to help the sick and to “do no harm.” When a physician refuses to see a patient or do early treatment, he breaks his oath, and the patient should remind him of that. A non-mask-wearing patient should not be denied treatment.
The Washington Examiner ran a story about the effectiveness of masks protecting wearers from COVID. They asked, “Do masks actually work? The best studies suggest they don’t”! A 2020 study in Denmark with 4,800 participants found that “1.8 percent of those in the mask group and 2.1 percent of those in the control group became infected with Covid-19 within a month, with this 0.3-point difference not being statistically significant.”
Reports of toxic mold and bacteria can harm your lungs and immune system as you also inhale synthetic fibers from the masks. Only the special N95 masks that few people have might be somewhat helpful.
Now the tyrants tell us that two-year-old children must be masked. Have these people lost their minds? They must not have children because small children will not wear a mask all day. Or an hour. It should be remembered that children have as much chance of getting COVID as being struck by lightning in an Iowa lake while fighting off a monster crocodile.
Some wackos have required children at school lunches to keep the masks on while eating. They must insert the food, then replace the mask, and chew and swallow the food. Then remove the mast to insert the food, replace the mask and chew the food. On and on and on. My reply: Nuts.
Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, declared, “There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit.”
Health officials at the CDC, NIH, FDA, and WHO have flipped more than a gasping fish on a riverbank. And are shocked when we ridicule their “expertise.”
Masks don’t work and even do great harm; moreover, they are abnormal since one’s face is a significant part of ones’ identity.
God reminds us in II Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Genesis 38:15 reminds us that when Judah saw his face-covered daughter-in-law, he “thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face.”
In II Chronicles 25, King Amaziah of Judah went to see Joash, King of Israel, saying, “Come, let us see one another in the face.” The face is very valuable in communication, understanding, and making judgments.
The petty health tyrants get their jollies out of issuing lockdowns, masks, treatments, etc., but they are bags of wind and driven by ego. Those that are not, might be sincere but sincerely stupid.
The federal government is trying to sell costly vaccines, face masks, and lockdowns to a naïve public without any scientific or legal support. Medical matters are the responsibility of the state, not the federal government. That doesn’t seem to matter since the force of the federal government is often used illegally.
Moreover, the federal government cannot regulate each state’s health requirements since it is the state’s legal responsibility. Biden and his shysters at the CDC, NIH, FDA, and WHO can pontificate all they want, but the states are responsible. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, “Direct control of medical practice in the states is beyond the power of the federal government.” (Linder v. United States, 268 U. S. 5, 18, 45 S. Ct. 446, 449 (69 L. Ed. 819, 39 A. L. R. 229.)
Congress or the CDC, NIH, FDA, or Joe Biden cannot directly restrict a physician’s professional judgment or interfere with the free exercise in treating disease. Whatever power exists in that respect belongs to the states exclusively.
Political and medical tyrants have demanded masks and vaccinations but thinking Americans are saying, “no.” School teachers, bus drivers, pilots, police officers, firemen, and many medical personnel have refused the shot and masks. It tells the tyrants we will not be controlled.
With all the workers refusing the jab, mask-wearing, etc., it will break the back of the tyrants; or the workers will cave, energizing the tyrants. Our massive federal debt, bankrupt businesses, climbing inflation, and our refusal to stand will produce a total collapse of America. We can defeat tyranny again.
Tyrants are never impressed by cowardly compliance and craven capitulation; it only emboldens, empowers, and encourages tyranny. George Orwell reminded us, “All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed, they must rely exclusively on force.” We are watching a demonstration of raw force in various nations. Thomas Jefferson opined, “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.”
We live under tyranny if the people fear their government instead of government officials fearing the people. It’s time to stand. As Jefferson said, it’s your duty.’https://donboys.cstnews.com/over-6700-doctors-sign-letter-rejecting-coronavirus-tyranny
‘The provisional number of births in the U.S. was 3,605,201 in 2020. That is the lowest number of births in the United States since 1979, according to Centers for Disease Control. 2020 also had the lowest fertility rate since the government started tracking births in 1902. And don’t blame the s0-called “pandemic.” Birth rates have been steadily declining since 2007, when 4.3 million babies were born in the United States. Total fertility rates have been below replacement – meaning the number of births necessary for a generation to replace itself – since 1971.
Google searches for the term “depopulation” reached peak popularity in April 2020. The term “population control” reached its peak Google popularity in March 2020. Granted we’re learning in 2021 that intelligent people succumb to government psy-ops. But critical thinkers understood immediately that something was very wrong with all the COVID-19 stuff. Plus many among the global elite continually and openly gloat about their desire to cull the masses.
RELATED: Bill Gates is the second-largest funder of the World Health Organization (June 23, 2021)
Bill Gates isn’t even coy about his desires. Despite mainstream media saying his words were taken out of context or he misspoke or something, Gates said at a TED Talks that new vaccines can lower the population “by 10 to 15%.”’https://thecovidblog.com/2021/10/15/depopulation-agenda-planned-parenthood-from-its-documented-beginnings-in-1916-race-based-eugenics-to-2021-global-genocide/?utm_source=October+15+email
This is occurring in America and Australia. ‘The thin-chested wannabe tyrants of America have hit onto a brilliant plan. First, bankrupt your business. Then, bail you out. Then, demand that you be grateful to them for saving you from the problem they created. They’ve been doing it for years, and now they’re doing it to try and force vaccine mandates onto the whole country.’https://rumble.com/vnqywl-cw-ep-24-holding-cw-ep-24-holding-cw-ep-24-holding.html?mref=6zof&mc=dgip3&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BPR&ep=2
It shouldn’t be a hard decision but it is for some even when the Scriptures explicitly say in Romans 1:21-27 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
God’s Word isn’t up for debate but for obedience! Nevertheless, ‘This week, North America’s oldest denomination will confront its gridlock over LGBTQ ordination and same-sex marriage. Votes cast in Tucson, Arizona, at the Reformed Church in America’s General Synod — delayed 16 months due to the pandemic — will chart the course for the already-splintering denomination.
In the past year, conservative factions have broken ties with the Reformed Church in America (RCA), with other churches threatening to follow. Delegates to the synod, which starts Thursday and will continue through Tuesday, will determine how the denomination might restructure to entice congregations to stay, if the church will establish an external mission organization and whether departing congregations can plan on taking their church buildings with them.
“At General Synod, delegates come from across the RCA to discern the mind of Christ together,” said Christina Tazelaar, RCA director of communications. “There are difficult decisions on the agenda, along with many things to celebrate, and we’re praying that the Holy Spirit guides every decision.”
The RCA is a historically Dutch Reformed denomination dating back to the 1620s, when New York was known as New Amsterdam. Today, the RCA has fewer than 200,000 members and 1,000 churches. While in theory RCA churches are united by their polity, history and Reformed convictions, they hold a range of political and theological beliefs.
The RCA isn’t the only Protestant denomination facing division over views on sexuality. Next year, the United Methodist Church is expected to vote on a proposal to split the denomination over the inclusion of LGBTQ members, and the RCA’s sister denomination, the Christian Reformed Church, will grapple with its contentious human sexuality report at its own synod.
“It’s a case study in how a church can or cannot navigate questions of identity, questions that are tense, matters of conflict,” said Matthew van Maastricht, pastor at Altamont Reformed Church in Altamont, New York. “We are just one part of a greater reshaping of the broader American Protestant landscape.”
According to the Rev. Dan Griswold, clerk of the RCA’s Holland Classis, the RCA debates involve specific questions: Can an RCA church host a wedding between a same-sex couple, and can an RCA minister officiate such a wedding? Can noncelibate gay people be elected as elders and deacons and ordained as ministers? While these questions are often framed as political, they are also theological.
“It’s really about how we view the Bible, how we understand God and the nature of the church,“ said the Rev. Lynn Japinga, professor of religion at RCA-affiliated Hope College. “It’s a fundamental difference in approach to the Christian faith that’s the source of all this. … Do you have more of a rule-based faith, or do you have a more grace-based faith?”
Ron Citlau, senior pastor of Calvary Church near Chicago, frames the question differently.
“I’ve dealt with same-sex attraction, and the issue for me and many of the people I know is, is it a thing for which Jesus Christ needs to come to redeem us, or is it a blessing he wants us to embrace?” said Citlau, who is married to a woman and whose church helped form the conservative non-RCA Kingdom Network. “If we get sin wrong, there are larger things at stake.”
The debate is also a question of polity. The RCA has a localized structure that gives classes — regional church groups — authority over matters such as discipline and ordination. While all RCA churches follow the Book of Church Order, they don’t have to follow the General Synod’s recommendations.
“There’s nothing in the Book of Church Order that says anything explicit about sexuality at all,” said David Komline, associate professor of church history at Western Theological Seminary. “The General Synod has repeatedly made statements that are more traditional in orientation about sexuality, but those are just statements. There are no mechanisms in place to hold people accountable to these statements.”
An ongoing question is whether the General Synod ought to be able to make dictates it can enforce. In recent years, conservative RCA members have pushed for General Synod to do just that. In 2016, the General Synod voted to amend the Book of Church Order to define marriage as between a woman and a man. However, the measure failed to win the necessary two-thirds approval from the classes.
“We found that the RCA is designed in such a way, intentionally or not, in which the vast majority cannot move to what they believe is right because there are just enough progressive classes that can veto,” said Citlau. According to Citlau, the two-thirds rule gives disproportionate power to classes with progressive views and fewer members. But progressive members argue the General Synod was never designed to issue top-down decisions in the first place.
In 2018, General Synod formed a team charged with discerning whether the RCA should stay together, restructure or separate. In their Vision 2020 Report, that team suggested a path involving all three avenues. First, the report recommends appointing a team for reorganizing classes by affinity rather than geography; churches would opt into classes and group themselves by shared values. The second proposal is to create an external RCA mission agency that would allow departing churches to continue supporting RCA’s global missions work. Third, the report recommends allowing a departing church to retain its property and assets.
These three proposals are scheduled to be debated on Saturday and require a simple majority of votes to pass — but the measures could be radically amended before then, and other overtures could be adopted as well.
Regardless of what happens at the General Synod, the RCA is already splitting. The Kingdom Network, an alliance currently composed of five churches in Indiana and Illinois, officially left the RCA on Sept. 9. The group was formerly an RCA classis that prioritized church planting.
“The RCA has this albatross around its neck, and historically it moves very slow,” said Citlau. “From our point of view, the house is burning. We can’t keep saying, we’re going to wait five more years and have a couple of committees. It’s already a bloody mess, and until you’re willing to get in there and make some choices, there’s no way through. And we did our best effort to make a way through.”
In May 2021, the Alliance of Reformed Churches was formed as an alternative to the RCA for conservative churches questioning their place in the denomination. According to their website, more than 125 churches have expressed interest in joining the alliance.
“The Alliance of Reformed Churches is praying with the RCA for the clear leading of God’s Spirit at its General Synod,” the Alliance said in a statement. “Our prayers will be with our brothers and sisters as they walk together through this significant moment in the RCA’s history.”
More departures are likely on the way. The 2020 Vision Report said: “We have informally learned of entire classes’ intention to exit the denomination in the near future.” These departures have been a long time coming; the RCA has been debating sexuality and LGBTQ inclusion since the 1970s.
“People on different sides of the spectrum have been fighting for about 40 years, and they’re sick of it,” said Komline. “They believe their fighting is impeding their mission. I think that’s the case on both sides. The liberals want to go pursue justice, as they define it, and the evangelicals want to share the gospel as they define that.”
According to Griswold, these divisions can be traced back even further. The RCA was originally formed by several waves of Dutch immigrants. Those in the earlier waves settled along the East Coast, where they eventually developed sensibilities that resembled those of their mainline peers, while migrants who came in the 19th century often settled further west. Today, the cultural and theological divides are still evident. All except five of the 44 churches listed as LGBTQ-affirming by Room for All — an LGBTQ-affirming network in the RCA — are in the Northeast.
“As America as a whole has shifted, the RCA has experienced some similar shifts,” said Komline. “Just as America now is very polarized, so is the RCA.”’https://julieroys.com/reformed-church-in-america-faces-rupture-lgbtq-gridlock/?mc_cid=2930a15c78&mc_eid=b13d34ad49
Across Australia and ‘Across America today, there is a move to silence Christians.
There’s a massive effort on the part of social media, the biased news media, politicians and bureaucrats to silence Christians from speaking on moral issues, political issues, and even the truth about Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, many Christians are caving in and compromising, including pastors and church leaders.
Here are 6 things every Christian should know:
#1. Freedom of worship – today’s megatrend.
Freedom of worship is what President Biden and those hostile to evangelical Christians believe in.
This is in contrast to freedom of religion.
Freedom of worship means you can believe what you want, but you cannot share it.
This is what you find in many socialist and communist countries: you can believe in Jesus Christ, but you have to keep your beliefs to yourself.
This megatrend is based on the fact that they want a consensus that’s not offensive to anyone.
Don’t disagree with the culture…or the politicians and bureaucrats.
Don’t speak out about truth or your faith.
Don’t say anything that would offend anyone.
If what you say is “hurtful,” you need to be silent.
If what you say makes someone uncomfortable, you need to be silent.
If you want to share the gospel, you need to make sure it’s not offensive.
If it is, it’s disallowed.
In ancient Rome, in the early church, Christians were known as “haters.”
Why?
Not because they hated but because they were defined as haters by the government and by the average person.
Why? Because their beliefs were contrary to the cultural and political values of the day.
You see, the Christians – who are known by their love — were acknowledged for helping pick up babies set aside on the side of the road as a form of abortion — and adopting them.
Christians were the ones who started the hospitals, took care of the sick, and educated people.
Christians were known for helping one another and those around them.
But they were still “haters” because they were contrary to the culture.
That’s why the early church endured such tremendous persecution.
You can also see this in the book of Acts and in Paul’s writings.
I’m teaching a Bible study right now on the book of Philippians, and in Acts 16 you can see some of the persecution that Paul went through and that the church had to endure.
#2: Resist religious zealots who oppose biblical morality and who make good evil, and evil good.
“Religious” zealots – some who are secular, some who follow a false religion — are attacking Christians with moral superiority and great energy.
They are promoting the Equality Act.
They are using the media to try to force Christians into silence.
In the schools and in the community, they want to silence Christians.
They have replaced the true and living God with religious zealousness. They claim that they have the high moral ground, and that Christians are terrible people – deplorables.
#3. Many Christians are okay with cultural conformity.
This is not true – Christians being conformed to this world. “Conform to our culture…conform to the political establishment” is not what Christianity is about.
From the early church on, Christians have stood on a moral ground based upon biblical truth, not cultural acceptance.
The Philippians, for example, where at odds with the culture. The slave girl, the jailer, the wealthy Asian businesswoman, they and others in the church of Philipi accepted Christ, pitting themselves in contrast to the pagan society around them.
#4: Christians must have the courage to stand strong.
What’s interesting throughout the Bible is how we see Christians – people of God — being persecuted from the start to the end.
What we see over and over again in the New Testament is a declaration that Christians need to stand firm. Not to give in. Not to compromise. But to have courage to move forward.
There is a choice between compromise and just getting along.
We see this in Acts 5:28: “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” the high priest said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
And what was the response?
“On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to.” Acts 5:24.
#5. What is a Christian?
A Christian is one who has been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.
They have been born again.
They are salt and light. And we have the Great Commission to spread the gospel.
Our testimony requires not editing and watering down the gospel to please man.
Some pastors and church leaders seem to be okay with keeping their churches closed or compromised or not loving their flock. These are not being good shepherds to their people.
Those who are afraid about what the politicians, bureaucrats, media and others say — who wish to get along for political or economic favor — are not standing firm.
Some are afraid of losing influence or status. It’s something that we must resist.
#6: Finally…yes, there is sin and hell.
There are those who are silent about sin.
There are those who will want to deny hell.
They think talking about sin and hell is wrong.
They might not believe in electricity.
That doesn’t change the truth that electricity is real.
There is one prediction I feel confident making: you and every human born has sin and will die.
What happens at death?
Hebrews 9:27: Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.
The Bible is clear. 2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”
Our hope is in Jesus Christ alone.
He died on the cross for our sin.
He rose from the dead.
He provides those who believe in eternal life…and forgiveness of sins because of his death on the cross.
It’s all because of His grace and mercy.
We must stand firm.’https://mychristiandaily.com/freedom-of-worship-vs-freedom-of-religion-the-cultural-divide-you-need-to-be-aware-of/
‘My critics will declare my title wrong since America is a democracy (more accurately, a republic) and not an Empire. An Empire is “a major political unit having a territory of great extent or a number of territories or peoples under a single sovereign authority.” I suggest America qualifies as an Empire with Biden acting like our “single sovereign authority.”
America can’t be a democracy since I did not vote (nor did my representatives) vote to pull out of Afghanistan or to open our southern border to decent, hard-working people looking for a better life and for sure, not for terrorists, deadbeats, child molesters, thieves, muggers, and other lowlifes. I did not vote to pretend two men or two women living together can make up a family; nor that children have a right to decide their gender; nor that a man can pretend to be a woman by changing his plumbing; nor to permit males to compete with females in athletic events; nor to permit boys to declare themselves female and gain rightful entrance into female restrooms and locker rooms.
Nor did I vote to permit our Empire to be run by egotistical health officials who have never treated anyone for anything at any time. Nor did I vote to force toddlers to wear a face mask; nor for businesses to be closed and church services to be shut down.
No, the American Empire, like Rome, is crumbling as I write.
I’ve even heard that some big-city mayors, all Democrats, will give a guaranteed weekly wage, but that can’t be true. Even Democrats can’t be that stupid.
The world has been fighting the Communist Chinese coronavirus for many months, and with “new variants” appearing, we may be losing the battle. Businesses are closing, hospitals are full, people are angry, experts are vacillating, politicians are lying as they take control, the innocent are dying, and vaccine makers are crying all the way to the bank carrying buckets full of money.
However, it has happened before with more tragic results.
Bubonic Plague lashed the face of Europe in the Middle Ages, killing half the population in some cities, more in others. Now the World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that bubonic plague (Black Death) is spreading in many parts of Madagascar (island nation just east of southern Africa), and a “weak health care system means it may spread farther.” WHO reported that there have been 40 deaths from the plague, with 119 people infected. Plague is spread by fleas carried by rats.
WHO also ominously reported, “There is now a risk of a rapid spread of the disease due to the city’s high population density and the weakness of the healthcare system.”
Well, add one more threat to life from all the exotic diseases (pestilences) from Africa and China—earthquakes, famines, wars, and rumors of war to warn world citizens of the end of the world as we know it. No, I’m not a pessimist; that thought was Matthew, chapter 24. We have experienced all this before, but not with such frequency and intensity. Nations could be destroyed as in the past.
American physician, bacteriologist, and prolific author Hans Zinsser, among others, believe that the Plague of Justinian was partly responsible for the demise of the Roman Empire. He declared the plague was “perhaps the most potent single influence” which gave the coup de grâce to the ancient Empire. Bugs, not bullets, knocked off an empire! This pandemic lasted about seventy years and caused havoc in the Roman Empire, already bruised, broken, and bleeding. Justinian was desperately trying to restore the ancient Empire to its former glory–like trying to breathe life into a corpse.
Seventy years of pandemic!
During Emperor Justinian’s reign, the worldwide plague began in A.D. 541 at Pelusium, Egypt (at the mouth of the Nile). He was known as “the emperor that never sleeps.” In sixty years, the plague spread to all parts of the known world. The dead lay unburied in the streets, and ten thousand persons died each day at Constantinople. The people of Constantinople became desperate with all the deaths as they placed bodies anywhere they could. Some bodies were left in houses to rot. It got worse as the black horse of famine galloped through the city because mills stopped grinding corn due to workers’ deaths.
They experienced a major food shortage because of many business failures. And those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
V. Seibel tells us that the plague was preceded by many earthquakes, volcanic eruptions—Vesuvius, in 513, was one—and famines that dropped a blanket of terror and death over Europe, the Near East, and Asia. The worst natural occurrence was the earthquake and fire that destroyed Antioch in A.D. 526, killing almost 300,000 people.
The Roman Empire was in a state of confusion because of the added pressure, problems, and panic produced by the plague. Gibbon wrote, “No facts have been preserved to sustain an account or even a conjecture of the numbers that perished in this extraordinary mortality. I only find that, during three months, five and at length ten thousand persons died each day at Constantinople; and many cities of the East were left vacant, and that in several districts of Italy the harvest and the vintage withered on the ground.”
When the plague snuck into Constantinople in A.D. 542, it stayed for four months, killing so many people that it was impossible for the living to bury the dead. By A.D. 565, half of the citizens of the Byzantine Empire had died! Gibbon suggested that perhaps 100 million people in Europe alone died of this plague!
Well, we aren’t there yet.
Justinian’s armies were fighting with Persia, Africa, and the Goths in Italy, but those crude, unsophisticated barbarians had learned the art of making war from former warlords. Barbarians had learned how to organize, analyze, and cooperate. It was ever more difficult for the emperor to sustain armies on far-flung battlefields, especially when there were threats at home and treachery and thievery in his palace. Justinian needed, least of all, a major epidemic to compound his problems.
This Plague of Justinian emptied the cities, turned the country into a desert, and made the habitations of men the haunts of wild beasts. The snakes slithered and hissed, the hyenas crouched and laughed, and wild beasts pawed and growled where proud, pompous, and productive men once walked.
However, when men face the inscrutable, they tend to lose their arrogance, sinking into a hapless and helpless, and hopeless life.
Gibbon recorded: “The triple scourges of war, pestilence, and famine afflicted the subjects of Justinian, and his reign is disgraced by a visible decrease of the human species which has never been regained in some of the fairest countries of the globe.” Can anyone read that statement and doubt that disease has changed our world far more than wars? Furthermore, will irresponsible Muslim terrorists or the Communist Chinese coronavirus change our present world forever? Or maybe it will be the bubonic plague.
The plague of Justinian ended about 590, but most of Italy was controlled by the Lombards by that time. The barbarians were no longer at the gates of Rome but inside the gates. The mighty Empire had crumbled, and when the Muslim zealots swarmed out of Arabia in 634, the Roman and Persian forces gave only token resistance.
As uncultured, uncivilized, uneducated, and uncontrolled Muslim zealots swarm into America carrying hostile plans and harmful pestilences, will the once-great American Empire fall like Rome?
Even Emperor Justinian contracted the plague but survived; however, his Empire did not. The question: how will ancient plagues and other pestilences impact and change America?
Some of us will live long enough to see that answer.’https://donboys.cstnews.com/will-the-american-empire-fall-like-rome-because-of-a-virus
Ready for some good news? ‘Missouri has become the nation’s first “abortion-free state” after its last remaining abortion facility allegedly stopped terminating pregnancies this year, a pro-life group discovered. According to an Operation Rescue investigative report on the nationwide status of abortion facilities in 2020, “a total of 45 abortion facilities closed or halted abortions nationwide in 2020, leaving one state without an active abortion facility.“‘ https://www.theblaze.com/news/missouri-first-abortion-free-state?utm_source=theblaze-breaking&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20210114Trending-MissouriAbortionClinics&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Breaking%20News
We live overseas and have dual citizenship and therefore, we may still have the privilege of voting in the USA elections. We vote for the one we believe will continue to uphold the Constitution as the founding fathers intended. Nevertheless, the enemies of freedom have been at work since the founding of the nation and are today doing all they can to tear down America morally, finically and spiritually. Sometimes it seems like a losing battle but God is still on the throne. May this reading of Psalm One be a blessing to you as you meditate not on man but on the Creator and Sustainer of all life! Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Just finished watching the Presidential debate and was amazed at the hostility of the moderator. Now, my personal opinion is that the President did a great job and Sleepy Lying Joe was Sleepy Lying Joe! When Joe says renewables will make millions of jobs and that the USA will reach 0% of carbon emissions is one BIG LIE!! This climate scam is just that, a scam. Some will make millions while others will be paying the price. As for Hunter he is a crook and made his millions off the back of his father.
If Biden just happens to get in as President the term ‘God bless America’ will soon be ‘God help America’.
whatyareckon 